Contents

Notes

Reincarnation's most common use is for wipe recovery. A shaman is the only class capable of restoring a group from a wipe on its own. However, the long cooldown and the other potential use means that it is sometimes preferable to let everyone run, rather than waste a 30-min cooldown to save the group a few minutes of running.

Reincarnation cannot be used while affected by a warlock's Soulstone (which may provide less health and mana than Reincarnate). Using a Soulstone does not put Reincarnation on cooldown, however, so a shaman with a Soulstone and Reincarnation could return to life twice in the same fight.

Reincarnation can also be used during combat, allowing the shaman to continue fighting. This is particularly useful for raiding, and when fighting over objectives in Battlegrounds. Note that Reincarnation can not be used in PvP Arenas.

This spell is almost a carbon copy of the WC3 spell of the same name. Reincarnation was the ultimate ability for the Tauren Chieftain, which allowed him to come back to life with full health and mana at no cost.

Tips

When you know you are going to wipe, find a safe place to die (where you will not aggro the mobs when you rez), wait for mobs to reset, Reincarnate, and resurrect the other players. This avoids the wait involved with everyone having to run back (and possibly re-clear trash). Watch your cooldown, because the ability may not then be available in a boss fight where reincarnating may mean the difference between a win and a loss.

If you are out of mana, you can deliberately die and resurrect with 20-40% mana and health, and continue the fight. Obviously, this is not useful when soloing, as the mobs will immediately reset when you die.

If you reincarnate and die again you will take durability damage twice.

Dying will reset your threat. This is sometimes jokingly referred to as "the Shaman aggro dump". Unlike Feign Death, it cannot be resisted.

Patch changes

Patch 4.0.6 (8-Feb-2011): Reincarnation can now correctly be used after Soulstone Resurrection or Rebirth has already been used on the shaman during a boss encounter.

Patch 3.3.0 (08-Dec-2009): The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 30 minutes.

Patch 1.6.0 (12-Jul-2005): Self-resurrection spells show their name on the button in the release spirit dialog. Reincarnation will no longer be an option on death when a Soulstone effect is active on the Shaman. The Soulstone will be used as the higher priority effect.